


You say, come home

by swallowthewhale



Series: Killervibe Week [16]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Killervibe Week, Killervibe Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-25 06:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20372533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swallowthewhale/pseuds/swallowthewhale
Summary: The accelerator explosion doesn’t create The Flash; it leaves only destruction and devastation in its wake. Caitlin loses her fiancee. Cisco loses his best friend. Five years later, Cisco runs into Caitlin in an unexpected place and as they rekindle their friendship, something new takes root.Killervibe Week 2019: Canon Divergent





	You say, come home

_I've been searching and searching for you_

_But myself, I don't want to be found_

Cisco saw Caitlin for the last time at Ronnie’s funeral. He stood next to her as it poured, holding an umbrella over both of them, with her hand clutched on his arm. Cisco waited with her as people filed by to give their condolences, until they were the last two left, staring at a casket covered in flowers.

He drove her home, gave her a hug, made her promise to call if she needed anything.

She never called. A week later, Cisco arrived at her apartment to find it empty. Caitlin was gone.

Cisco doesn’t so much move on as he does just keep going. He gets a job at Palmer Tech, working with Ray Palmer who is nothing but a lovable genius idiot. He builds new tech, he gets a new apartment, he dates. He avoids telling people he used to work at Star Labs because he hates the pitying look they get in their eyes and the sympathies layered with judgement. Cisco carefully curates the group of friends he keeps around him. Ray, Felicity and her moody boyfriend, billionaire Oliver Queen, Oliver’s feisty little sister, Thea, and eventually Iris, a young writer for the Central City Press who lost her friend Barry Allen in the explosion and approaches Cisco looking for answers. Cisco doesn’t really have any answers for her, but they become friends because there are so few people who know what it was like to lose someone in the explosion.

Five years go by. Cisco settles into his new life. His parents, shaken by the accelerator explosion and seeing the money Cisco makes working at Palmer Tech, soften towards their youngest son. Dante goes back to school and gets a job as a music teacher, their relationship mends without their parents’ glorification of Dante and disregard for Cisco. Cisco would say he’s satisfied, if not happy, until one day in Jitters he sees a ghost.

Cisco would be lying if he said he still didn’t think about her. He’d betrayed her by letting her fiancee sacrifice himself in order to contain the damage from the explosion, even if she didn’t know that. She’d never given him a change to tell her when she vanished from Central City and his life five years ago. Cisco had tried everything to find her, even enlisting the help of Felicity and Iris, who both had to admit defeat when no trace of Caitlin Snow could be found.

She’s behind him in line, so when Cisco steps up to the counter and orders his usual, he also tells Kendra to add a caramel iced latte for Caitlin Snow.

Kendra lifts an eyebrow at him as she writes the names on the cups. “Who’s Caitlin?”

Cisco gives her a tight smile. “A ghost,” he says, tipping her and moving to the side to wait.

“Caitlin Snow!” The barista calls.

Cisco watches as Caitlin’s head jerks up, her eyes meeting his. The blood drains out of her face. 

Cisco tips his head towards the drink waiting for her on the bar. There’s no satisfaction in being right, just hurt. Has she been in the same city as him this whole time?

Caitlin slowly moves to take her drink, sniffing it then taking a sip. She gives him a tiny smile, and Cisco knows he got her coffee order right. 

“Thanks,” she says quietly, standing right in front of him. 

Cisco steps around her to take his own coffee. “You’re welcome,” he says, holding his cup up in a toast. “Welcome back, I guess.”

Caitlin fiddles with her straw. “Thanks.”

Cisco stands there awkwardly for a moment before edging towards the door. “Well, I should go.”

“Wait,” Caitlin says. “Cisco, I-”

“It’s fine,” Cisco says. “Coffee’s on me.”

“No.” Caitlin grabs his arm. “Cisco, I’m sorry. For leaving, for not calling. I shouldn’t have disappeared on you like that.”

Cisco shrugs. “You didn’t owe me anything.”

“I did,” Caitlin says firmly. “And I’d like to catch up, if you want. Let me make it up to you.”

Cisco sighs, already feeling his anger weaken. “Okay,” he says. “Call me. My number hasn’t changed.”

She nods. “Okay, I will. I promise.”

Cisco backs away, he’s heard that before. “Bye, Caitlin.”

_I've been hiding my face for so long_

_It's a wonder that you know my name_

Caitlin does call him, that evening, and Cisco agrees to meet at Jitters on Saturday for lunch.

Caitlin is already at a table when Cisco arrives. She’d probably gotten there early so she could be sitting at precisely noon. Ronnie had always joked that you could set a clock to Caitlin. 

“Hey,” Cisco says.

Caitlin looks up and smiles tentatively. “Hey.” She nudges a second coffee cup towards him. “I got you your old order.”

Cisco sits and sips, grinning into the cup at the familiar taste of his usual order. “You remembered?”

She lifts a shoulder. “You remembered mine.”

“Yours is easy, it’s just the sweetest iced coffee on the menu,” Cisco teases.

Caitlin rolls her eyes. “Yours has just as much sugar.” Her smile fades. “Cisco…”

He shakes his head. “Don’t, Caitlin.”

“You should let me apologize,” Caitlin says softly, spinning her cup in little circles. 

“You already did.”

Caitlin looks at him imploringly. “A full apology. I did so many things wrong, Cisco, and I know how much I hurt you.”

Cisco sighs. “Caitlin, your entire world was upended. Ronnie was gone, your workplace literally exploded, all of your research was ruined… I understand. It’s okay. Let’s just- let’s just forget about it.”

“Okay,” Caitlin asks hesitantly. “You’re at Palmer Tech now, right? What have you been working on lately?”

Cisco relaxes and explains the new tech he’s working on with Felicity that will revolutionize facial recognition systems. Caitlin asks just as insightful and intelligent questions as Cisco remembers her doing at Star Labs, poking holes and questioning assumptions in a way that never manages to sound critical. Cisco always liked that about her. She was really good at guiding you in a new direction without making you feel like an idiot for overlooking something.

“What about you?” Cisco asks. “Where are you working?”

“Well,” Caitlin hedges. “I went to work for my mom for a while, which was a terrible idea.”

Cisco wrinkles his nose in sympathy. He’d met Caitlin’s mom exactly once, and has no desire to repeat the experience. 

“But I have a new job here at the research hospital. It’s not very exciting, but it’s okay.”

Cisco raises an eyebrow. “A research hospital? I thought you didn’t want to do that again.”

Caitlin shrugs. “It’s the only offer I got.”

He bites his lip, thinking, then decides to go for it. “You should come to Palmer Tech. Ray will love you. He’s got this big secret project he’s been working on for years and he really needs someone with medical expertise for it. You’d be perfect.”

Caitlin looks wary. “If it’s so secret, why would he trust me with it?”

“Ray is a trusting guy,” Cisco says. “Just meet him, and then decide.”

“Okay,” Caitlin says. “Thanks.”

They order lunch and Cisco catches Caitlin up on his family drama and more recent lack thereof. After lunch, they walk down the street toward the public park, aiming somewhat for the ice cream shop.

Cisco leads her past the ice cream shop, towards a park bench overlooking a little pond.

“Caitlin,” Cisco says carefully, leaning his elbows on his knees. “I have to tell you something.”

She turns a bit to face him. “Okay…”

“That night,” Cisco begins. “The night of the explosion.”

Caitlin’s mouth tightens.

“Ronnie went into the pipeline to ramp down the accelerator. I- I sealed him in before it blew.” Cisco looks over at Caitlin. “He told me to wait two minutes and… he didn’t come back.”

There’s a little furrow between Caitlin’s eyebrows and her eyes are watery, but she reaches out and puts her hand over his.

“I wanted to tell you sooner,” Cisco whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

“Do you know what Ronnie would say, if he were here?” Caitlin squeezes his hand. “He would say it wasn’t your fault. You did the right thing.”

Cisco looks down, turning his hand to lace their fingers together.

“You and Ronnie saved a lot of lives that night.”

Cisco gives her a weak smile and Caitlin leans over to rest her head on his shoulder. They sit watching the ducks swim around the pond until Caitlin tugs on his hand.

“C’mon, don’t we have ice cream waiting for us?”

Caitlin’s meeting with Ray goes just as smoothly as he’d predicted it would. The one hour meeting stretched into two, then three. Ray came out elated with the full whiteboard of ideas they’d come up with, and Caitlin came out with a job.

Ray hosts a part-celebration, part-introduce Caitlin to everyone party the Friday before Caitlin’s first day at Palmer Tech. Everyone seems to get along well, Cisco thinks, until each of his friends come up to him individually to ask if he’s okay with Caitlin joining Palmer Tech or if they should all unite and oppose. Cisco tries to convince them that it was his idea for Caitlin to come to Palmer Tech, but no one except Iris seems to believe him. 

“I’ll work on them,” Iris promises. “They’ll come around.”

When the party winds down, Cisco offers to drive Caitlin home. The car ride is quiet, Caitlin staring out the window until he pulls up to her apartment.

“Thanks,” Caitlin says as they walk up to the front door. “I had a good time.”

“Thank Ray,” Cisco says, stopping in front of the door. “It was his idea for the party.”

Caitlin shakes her head. “No, I mean for getting me the job. I’m really excited about it. Much better than medical research.”

Cisco grins. “I’m glad you agreed. Now Ray will stop asking me about how neurons work.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m glad I have that to look forward to.” Her smile softens. “I’m really glad I ran into you at Jitters. I’ve missed you.”

Cisco takes a half step forward to hug her as Caitlin shifts and they bump noses. Caitlin giggles and hugs him back. “I missed you, too,” Cisco murmurs.

Caitlin settles into the hug a little more, turning her face into his shoulder.

There’s a moment, when Caitlin pulls away and their eyes meet, that makes Cisco’s heart pound and his skin tingle. But Caitlin smiles and turns to unlock her door and the moment fades.

_Have faith in the things you can't see to believe_

_What if you had faith in me_

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” Cisco says, exasperated, as he searches through his workshop for his wrench.

Caitlin trails him. “I need answers, Cisco. Don’t you think it was weird that the accelerator exploded after all the tests we ran? Everything was perfect. There should have been any issues.”

Cisco turns on his heel to point a screwdriver at her. “It was a freak accident, Caitlin. I’ve moved on. You should too.”

He looks away before he can see the hurt expression flit across Caitlin’s face. “I can’t move on, Cisco,” she says quietly. “I need to know.”

Cisco grits his teeth. “Talk to Iris then. She’s obsessed, too.”

He stalks away and Caitlin watches him leave, stubbornly refusing to cry, then calls Iris.

Caitlin and Iris start meeting every Friday night to compare notes and brainstorm ideas. Iris has done a thorough job already, narrowing down a list of people who had access to the accelerator and could have messed with it. Caitlin helps her narrow it down until they have just one name left. Dr. Harrison Wells.

Maybe Caitlin should have known that Cisco would find out. Maybe Cisco should have known that Caitlin wouldn’t drop it. 

“It couldn’t be Dr. Wells,” Cisco says tersely.

“Think about it,” Iris says. “He had the ultimate access. He knew everything. He was the only one who could have done it.”

Cisco turns to Caitlin. “Why would he destroy his life’s work?”

Caitlin shrugs. “We’re just looking into him. There’s no way to know he didn’t do it until we rule him out.”

Steaming, Cisco glares at them both. “You know what Dr. Wells means to me. He believed in me. He told me I could be great.”

Caitlin steps towards him but flinches when Cisco scowls at her. “Cisco-” She sighs. “Iris, can you give us a minute?”

Iris nods, seeming happy to have an excuse to escape, and hurries out of the room.

“Cisco,” Caitlin says gently. “Why are you afraid of finding out what really happened that night?”

Suddenly all his anger turns to anguish. He blinks back tears. “Because if it wasn’t an accident, then what was the point? Why would anyone want to kill all those people for nothing?”

Caitlin rests a hand on his arm. “Don’t you want to know the answer to that? Maybe it was just an accident, but if it wasn’t don’t you want the person responsible to be held accountable?”

Cisco’s face twists. “I don’t know.”

“Or,” she continues slowly. “Do you just want to have an excuse to stay angry at me?”

Cisco looks up, surprised. “I’m not angry at you.”

Caitlin rubs his arm. “I think you are, even if you don’t realize it.”

His face falls. “I guess I’m just trying to learn to trust again. To trust _you_ again.”

She nods. “I know. I’m trying to earn your trust back. But, Cisco, this is something I really need to do. It’s important to me.”

Cisco sighs. “Do what you need to do, then.” He smiles sadly at her. “Just leave me out of it, okay?”

Caitlin nods and smiles, relieved, when Cisco accepts her hug.

It takes Caitlin and Iris a weekend trip to Central City and one overnight stakeout to realize that Dr. Wells, who was paralyzed by the explosion, is perfectly capable of walking. Iris calls Felicity for help digging up more information on Dr. Wells. While both Iris and Felicity seem excited by the idea of breaking into Dr. Wells’ house to look for evidence, Caitlin manages to talk them out of it, suggesting instead that they go to the deserted Star Labs first.

Caitlin is staring at her old office door when Cisco calls.

“Hey.”

“How’s good old Central City?” Cisco asks.

“Pretty much the same,” Caitlin says. “I’m pretty sure nothing has changed.”

“How about Star Labs?” Cisco asks casually.

Caitlin sighs. “Felicity.”

“Yeah,” Cisco says ruefully. “You should know now that Felicity is terrible at keeping secrets.”

“Good to know,” Caitlin says. “Are you sure you want to hear about this?”

“Are you going to confront Dr. Wells?” Cisco asks.

“Yes,” Caitlin says. “After we have some evidence.”

“Okay.” Cisco’s voice is unreadable. He pauses. “Come home safe, okay?”

There’s a whole universe of implications in that sentence. Caitlin swallows harshly. “I’ll come home, Cisco. I promise.”

It turns out that Caitlin and Iris don’t need to break into Dr. Wells’ house, since Felicity hacks into his computer and finds all the evidence they need. Caitlin reads Dr. Wells’ journal silently, rage blossoming in her chest as she learns about his plan to intentionally sabotage the accelerator in order to create something called a metahuman. Caitlin cooly plugs her USB drive into the computer once she’s done reading and downloads everything. Then she and Iris go see Joe West and turn over the evidence to convict Dr. Harrison Wells, aka Eobard Thawne, of reckless endangerment and sixteen counts of murder.

Caitlin watches icily as Dr. Wells is arrested and walked out of his house. Their eyes meet for just one moment and Caitlin walks away. It’s time to go home.

Cisco watches the arrest on TV. He’s considering calling Caitlin to ask what had happened when she knocks on his door.

He smiles slowly, giddy and still blocking the doorframe. “You came back.”

Caitlin steps through his space, brushing against him, to go inside. “I promised I would.”

Cisco closes the door. “Hey.” He catches her hand and pulls to turn her around. “I’ve been thinking.”

She tips her head.

“I maybe still need to work on trusting again,” Cisco says. “But I- I know you’re not going to leave again.”

Hope blossoms on Caitlin’s face.

“And I don’t want to waste any more time.” He brushes his fingers along her cheek. “Tell me I’m not crazy. Tell me that this,” he gestures between them with their joined hands, “is-”

“It is,” Caitlin interrupts, smiling brightly. “It is.”

“Well,” Cisco says, drawing her closer. “Let’s not waste time, then.”

Caitlin’s heart expands and she leans into his kiss, their hands still trapped between their chests.

Cisco pulls away to rest his forehead against hers, unable to stop grinning enough to kiss her again. “Welcome home, Caitlin.”

_You say, rest here_

_This is your home_

_Don't you see that you knew I was here all along_

_You say_

**Author's Note:**

> Title and lyrics from "You Say" by Saving Jane


End file.
